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What Is Toxic Positivity and How Is It Bad for Your Workplace?
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What Is Toxic Positivity and How Is It Bad for Your Workplace?

Positivity is a virtue – but too much of it can be toxic. Here's how toxic positivity creates an unhealthy work environment.

Jamela Adam
U.S. News, 2023
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Every cloud has a silver lining, right? Though this sentiment is well-meaning, when the corporate culture makes light of serious challenges – or, worse, denies they exist – employee burnout increases and morale plummets. In a brief article for U.S. News & World Report, writer Jamela Adam sheds light on the harm that can result when well-intentioned optimism deteriorates into toxic positivity. Adam offers clues to know when toxic positivity has taken hold and suggests steps that managers and workers can take to combat it.

Summary

In the interest of promoting optimism, employers can – inadvertently or intentionally – create toxic positivity.

Toxic positivity burgeons when a commitment to optimism causes people to dismiss or gloss over concerns, problems or negative emotions. Toxic positivity is common: Some 68% of survey respondents say they’ve encountered it recently, while 75% of respondents say they themselves brush aside negative emotions in order to feel happy.

Signs of toxic positivity in the workplace include a constant stream of cheerful emails, a top-down culture of managers telling workers to “smile through it” or to “look for the silver lining,” and a tendency to sugarcoat or ignore problems while insisting everything’s OK. Managers who ask employees to view the company as one big happy family or who say&#...

About the Author

Jamela Adam is a writer covering personal finance and business topics.

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